Just soak your beans and cook them, chop up your tomatoes, onions, green chiles, etc and stew them together, throw in some water and home made beef broth, shuck and cook fresh corn, add spices similar to taco seasoning, and I am not sure what to do about the dry ranch packet.

I guess I have no idea how much of what to use, haha. I can eyeball most of it, but how many dried beans will be equivalent to a can is hard for me. I've never actually used dry beans. my mom taught me some things well, others not so much.

I forgot to write brown ground beef or turkey
That is the beauty of this dish, you can use as little or as much as you want. I personally like alot of beans and would use one bag of red kidney bean and bag of black beans, several tomatoes, one medium onion(not big onion eaters here) I could not begin to tell you how much corn(we use canned), but it can be as much as YOU want. You probably want to add extra water, bean juice or broth as the canned version does not get drained

and I am with you, my mom did not teach me anything in the kitchen.My neighbor has taught me more in the last 5 years inthe kitchen than my mama ever did

My mom taught me to bake. She is an amazing baker, and really, she taught me enough that I can follow basically any recipe with no trouble. I'm just not at all creative with cooking, because we ate the same (usually highly processed) foods all the time.

I'd probably use frozen corn. Corn on the cob is too pricey. I'm guessing that should be thrown in right before the end to prevent it from being mush? Canned corn is gross to me, I guess I hate salt, lol. I've never made it before, it just sounded good and I have lots of dried beans I'm trying to use up (gotta love WIC!). I guess if I soak a bunch and it's too much, I could always put them in my chili.

I thought about the frozen corn after I posted. I just was not sure of that was a no go with you or not. We actually use the no salt added canned corn. I am not sure how mushy the frozen would get. I throw my canned corn right in after I stew the tomatoes ( or if I am going the everything canned route, I through it all in at the same time.)and I let it simmer for awhile .
Taco soup is one of the family favorites here, and that is saying a lot with this picky bunch my ds hates corn, tomatoes, and black beans, but he eats two bowls!

We live off frozen veggies. We can get huge bags of organic veggies for $5-6, depending what it is. That much canned veggies would be closer to $12. They taste so much better because they are picked and frozen right away. I have seriously always had to choke down canned corn and peas. Others don't bother me, but I guess I still prefer fresh/frozen.

I'm excited to try it! I ended up with a migraine, so I may not make it until Tuesday, depends if I can move before bed tonight. :/ I'm hoping it will be a hit here, too! Thanks for your help!

Taco soup is so versatile. you can basically use how much or how little you want. My mom's basic recipe is 2-3 cans mexican style stewed tomatoes, 1.5-2lbs ground beeg, 5 cans chicken broth, 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, and 1 package of taco seasoning. ALL of those items can be made from scratch though. Chop up 8 or so tomatoes, make your own broth, and mix your own taco seasoning from spices. Then I add whatever we have on hand if I want more than the basic. A cup of frozen corn, a "can" of beans (I make a whole pot of dry beans, then portion it out- 1.5 cups of cooked beans is the same as 1 can), some other veggies we need to use. Soup is SO versatile, you really can't mess it up